Introduction

Reducing Youth Unemployment by 40% by 2021

In publishing our Youth Employment Strategy,
Developing the Young Workforce, in December 2014, the
Scottish Government committed to annual reporting on progress. This
second annual report largely covers academic year 2015/16 and
highlights early progress made in the first part of academic year
2016/17.

The report sets out the improvements being made across the
learning system and with employers to prepare young people for
working lives. It details the way in which, two years into
implementation, expansion and enhancement of the reach, range,
quality and impact of work based and work relevant opportunities
for young people continues apace.

Progress

Headlines include:

17 regional
DYW
employer groups in place working with schools and colleges across
the country;

vocational provision for young people in the senior phase is
growing, including a significant expansion of Foundation
Apprenticeships;

our first increased target for Modern Apprenticeships was
exceeded;

the introduction of careers advice earlier in schools and
creation of new standards for careers education and for work
placements in schools and colleges;

A gender action plan in place for further and higher
education, and an equalities plan for apprenticeships to ensure
we are doing all we can to shift under representation in certain
subjects and careers.

Next steps

Looking ahead we need to maintain this momentum as we move to
the middle phase of the programme. Now that the establishment of
regional employer groups is well underway, we will focus on raising
their profile and impact in schools and colleges, and consider
their sustainability. We will also assess the impact of the new
careers standard and how it is changing practice and consider how
the work placement standard is developing employer engagement in
schools and colleges. The continued expansion of vocational courses
will also be a focus in the year ahead, and we will be able to
assess how the experience in schools is changing for all young
people, especially those from different equality protected
characteristics.

Measuring impact

At the level of assessing the high level impact we need to make,
11 Key Performance Indicators (
KPIs) have
been established which underpin the programme. The headline target
for the programme is to reduce the level of youth unemployment
(excluding those in full-time education) by 40 per cent by 2021.
Chapter
5 of the report sets out the current position on
KPIs in
detail. We are seeing encouraging movement in:

the number of Modern Apprentices at level 3 and above to be
increased. The target is for 20,000 out of a total of 30,000
MA starts to be
at this level by 2021, i.e. two-thirds (
KPI5);

increase by 5 percentage points the minority gender share in
each of the 10 largest and most imbalanced college superclasses
by 2021 (
KPI8).

And that we still have further progress to make in:

Being one of the top five performing countries in the
EU for youth
unemployment by reducing the youth unemployment rate to match the
fifth best country in the
EU by 2021(
KPI2);

To reduce to 60 per cent the percentage of Modern
Apprenticeship frameworks where the gender balance is 75:25 or
worse by 2021 (
KPI7).

Running The Seven Year Programme

2014 - The independent Commission for Developing
Scotland's Young Workforce, chaired by Sir Ian Wood, published
Education Working for All! in June 2014. The report set
out a series of recommendations to help Scotland produce better
qualified, work ready young people with skills relevant to current
and anticipated employment opportunities.

Following this, the Scottish Government's Youth Employment
Strategy,
Developing the Young Workforce, was published in
December 2014, which accepted all recommendations in the
Commission's report and set out how the Government would
implement them.

A Programme Board with membership from the Wood Commission,
national and local government, colleges and employers was
established by the Scottish Government to provide strategic
advice and challenge on progress. The Board meets quarterly and
in its first year convened in West College Scotland, Scottish
Power Learning,
GTG
Training, and Dunfermline High School.

A National Advisory Group was also established to promote the
vision of the plans, maintain the political will and represent
the views of senior stakeholders. An assessment framework with 11
Key Performance Indicators was also agreed and is jointly led by
Local Government.

An Equality Impact Assessment (
EQIA) is
being developed for the programme and will be published in 2017.
The
EQIA will be
updated annually throughout the remainder of the programme in line
with policy developments.

To demonstrate where milestones and deliverables are
specifically related to equality aspects throughout the programme,
the following symbol is used: